With unusual candor, the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has released a stream of pictures of the cleric after he underwent prostate surgery. His office claimed the minor procedure was completed in half an hour and only necessitated local anesthesia. But Khamenei still received more than a dozen visitors, including the most powerful clerics and politicians in the country. The following are pictures and tweets released by the supreme leader’s office and an interview conducted before the surgery.
President @HassanRouhani visits Ayatollah Khamenei in hospital. pic.twitter.com/1PTelXehhe
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 8, 2014Dr Marandi, head of Leader's operation team: "Ayatollah #Khamenei is in complete health after this morning #surgery."
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 8, 2014
Hassan Khomeini (second from left), a mid-ranking cleric and widely considered to be the most prominent grandchild of late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, visits Khamenei with Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (center, with a white turban), current chief of the Expediency Council and a former president.
Ali Akbar Velayati (far right), a vetaran diplomat and Khamenei's foreign policy advisor pays a visit with Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel (second from right), an ex-parliamentary speaker. Both ran for president in the 2013 election.